LISTEN: PQ wants to drive non-francophones out of Quebec: poll

PQ has "no empathy", Liberal leader Couillard says

Non-francophones in Quebec are convinced that the Parti Québécois are doing whatever they can do drive them out of the province, acording to a new survey.

The survey, done by Ekos Research for the CBC, suggests 46 per cent of Quebecers believe the PQ is actively working to discourage non-francophones from staying, while 37 per cent didn't believe that.

Among anglophones and allophones, those figures whoot up dramatically — 81 per cent of anglophones and 78 per cent of allophones agree with that statement.

Among francophones, only 37 per cent agree with that assessment, while 43 per cent disagree.

It's another component of the poll released last week that suggested half of non-francophone Quebecers were thinking of leaving the province within the next year.

While premier Pauline Marois last week touted the "great respect" she had for the anglophone community, Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard on Monday denounced the party for its "deplorable" approach to anglo concerns.

"[The PQ is] totally indifferent to how our fellow English-speaking Quebecers feel about the situation." Couillard told reporters on Monday. "There is no preoccupation for how our English-speaking fellow Quebecers — I insist on that term — view the current policies and the direction that is being taken by the PQ."

With 37% of french speaking quebecers believe that this is true, that says a lot. Every anglophone I know have been convinces of this since Rene Leveque. Also most of us also believed that Robert Bourassa would like to have seen more of us go re: Bill 22

@George Grummett
I sincerely wish you good luck, as it is time for the next generation to stand up and fight for their place here. My generation is battle fatigued and ready for some peace and quiet in our later years.

I have given some thought to leaving as I think that my children will have the best chances to succeed financially outside this province. There has already been two separate HEC studies that have indicated that Québec will be the poorest province in Canada in the next several years. That is a trend that will not be easily changed now that there has been a negative downward momentum built up. The PQ's recent actions and the passivity or outright prejudice of the general French population in rural Québec will be the last straw that will force people's hands in leaving. Ironically, they will be driving out the majority of Quebecers who will be the most proficient at speaking bilingually. These people will most likely set up in places such as Toronto, that welcomes bilingual employees with open arms. Not only had Toronto benefitted from the economic gain of business having fled Montreal decades ago, but they stand to gain economically again in a second wave that will be accompanied by a ``brain-drain`` of fluently bilingual people. They may stand to have more people who can work bilingually in Canada than in Québec. The ability to speak multilingually is knowledge and knowledge is power; a concept that is not easily understood by many in Québec.

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